The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1887-05-14
A NEWSPAPER MANS FARM.
The Splendid Estate of Mr.. George w.
Childs, near Bryn Mawr, Pa.
PhiLndeLphia Times.


No one who encounters Mr.. George W. Childs
these fine spring days at Wootten, would consider
it strange that he should be of the most active
members of the Farmers Club. If owning a farm
and giving it his personal supervision can be con-
sidered farming, Mr.. Childs is a genuine farmer.
Some days during the past week Mr.. Childs did
not come into town at all, but remained at Wootten
seeing the smaller trees set out, having pasture
lands prepared to be sown in corn, inspecting the
cattle, going through the greenhouses and super
intending the clearing up of the woodland portion
of the estate and making suggestions for adding
to its natural beauties. In the immense rose house
are specimens of every known variety Of rose in
this or any other country. Every day the cuttings
amount to five hundred or a thousand roses, which,
with other flowers, ere sent to individual sick and
aged people and to the hospitals in accordance
with q list made out by Mrs. Childs. The roseries
where some of the hardy roses are now being set
out are extensive, and protected from harsh
winds and invasion by hedges of old tree roots,
forming what is termed the "stumpery."
The cattle are admirably cared for. They are
mostly Jersey COWS, beautifully marked and tinted
and bear the first names of some OF Mr.. and Mrs.
Childs' most particular friends. Their quarters
are complete with every convenience and are kept
as clean as a city parlor. One of the finest of the
cows present to Mr.. Childs from the late
John W. Garrett. Among the horses the most in
teresting is the favorite driving mare of General
Grant lastused by him before his fatal illness and
given by him to Mr. Childs. This mares colt is
a veritable beauty, as clean limbed and spirited
and proudly arched as an Arabian palfrey and as
playful as kitten. The dogs, of which there are
over dozen, are one of the most attractive fea-
lures of the animal life of the farm. They include
colies, mastis, foxhounds, spanies, st. Bernards,
To Mrs Childs anu ~ 49,, 3 .Lo ,;.;.o.. .ho
most interesting spot at Wootten outside
dwelling is the spring house, low, circular struc-
ture at the foot of grassy decivity, built of hewn
flint stone, which is prismatic in the sun. The
material is so hard that it broke the chises of the
masons who put in the few bronze furnishings ft-
ting into the walls. The purest of the dozen
springs on the place centre in the house, flowing
into an immense mother-of-pearl she'll, presented
by the Mikado of Japan to General Grant. The
floor of the spring house is beautifully tiled. In
the back part on ledge supported by cows legs
of bronze, the butter and cream is kept.
Nothing raised on the farm is sold. The extra
cream and butter and fruits and vegetables are
sent to poor and sick people, and even the calves
are given to friends. Mr.. Childs does not believe
in "living to himself alone" and his favorite ex-
preston is: 81 don't want anything exclusive
that nature provides so bountifuly." So admira-
BILE is every thing about the place that neighbors
often ask permission to copy some OF the features
or get duplicates of things that please their fancy
and he never refuses. Every invention and every
new idea known to the most advanced agriculture
and landscape gardening utilized at Wootten
to produce the most successful results that can be
attained, and the outcome is a remarkable COM
pleteness and maturity in everything. Besides
the rose house. there are dozen other greenhouses
containing noble ferns and almost every species
| of rare towering and foliage plants.